OREANDA-NEWS. The US Federal Trade Commission and 47 state attorneys have filed antitrust lawsuits against Facebook. They argue that the company abused its dominant position in the market to neutralize competitors through acquisitions and to prevent the emergence of an attractive alternative service to consumers.

In a lawsuit filed by state attorneys, the court is asking to ban Facebook "any non-competitive behavior", as well as any takeovers of other companies worth more than $ 10 million without prior approval from state authorities. Also, prosecutors are asking to recognize Facebook's takeover of the visual social network Instagram and the WhatsApp messenger as violating antitrust laws and demanding their sale if it is necessary "to restore competitive conditions" in the market.

A similar lawsuit from the US federal government - the consumer protection and competition FTC - also calls for greater control over Facebook's acquisitions of other companies and forced separation if necessary.

Their mission is to reverse the effects of Facebook's non-competitive behavior and restore competition to thrive innovation and free competition, FTC antitrust chief Ian Conner said.

Facebook's first high-profile takeover was the $ 1 billion purchase of Instagram in 2012. Two years later, the social network absorbed the WhatsApp messenger - already for 16 billion dollars, as well as the developer of hardware and software for virtual reality Oculus (for 2 billion). Earlier this year, it became known that the founder and head of Facebook directly admitted in personal correspondence that the explosive growth in popularity of Instagram threatened the future of Facebook, and allowed to eliminate this risk through takeover.